BEATRICE – A loader and trucks began cutting into a huge pile of brush and broken tree limbs from the severe storm line that struck the area last week.


City of Beatrice dump trucks, a loader and a claw began what’s expected to be a three-day job to haul away the broken limbs, from a drop-off-site at First and Ella.


"I've got four trucks hauling. They're probably going to make ten or twelve rounds a day. We're probably looking at a little over a hundred loads of brush taken out there."


Beatrice Street Superintendent Jason Moore says trucks are hauling away brush to the Beatrice Landfill at the same time residents are still bringing limbs to the site. It is a service the city is providing, at no charge.


Moore says it will take at least three days to the finish the hauling and then the site would likely have to be closed.  As much as the pile grew, Moore says it’s still much less than the mountain of limbs and branches brought down during a 2016 storm.


"That was a late spring or summer storm, and everything was leafed out. We had a lot more damage just because the wind caught so much of the leaves. You wouldn't think so, but it does really do a lot more damage on the trees."


Moore says a contractor will be brought in next spring to grind up the broken branches.